The present invention relates to devices for transferring items from a first location to second location. More particularly, the invention relates to an end effector for a robotic arm. The end effector is capable of removing a stack of relatively flat items from a shipping container and depositing said items at a workstation, conveyor, or directly into an automatic cartoning machine.
In bottling, canning, cosmetics, house wares and other industries, large amounts of packaging material such as folded, flat, paperboard and other such containers must be handled. Typically, such packaging material arrives in relatively bulky and heavy shipping containers or corrugated boxes. The boxes may be stacked on pallets and have spacers between each row of boxes.
In the past, the task of removing the packaging materials from shipping containers has been performed by hand. Because the work is repetitive and the packaging materials are relatively heavy, workplace injuries can be significant when such materials are manually unloaded. Often, many workers must be employed to remove the folded or flattened packaging materials from the shipping crates and place the materials at the appropriate position within one or more workstations. Therefore, attempts have been made to automate this process, thereby alleviating the above noted and unwanted problems.
Thus, a novel end effector for a robot is needed that can transfer generally flat stackable items and simultaneously reduce conventional cycle times, reduce down-time, reduce operating expenses and reduce damage to the items being manipulated.
The prior art recognizes the usefulness of robotic unloading of relatively flat stackable items. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,832, incorporated herein by reference, also assigned to assignee of the present invention, describes an apparatus for transferring relatively flat items. Despite the success of the '832 patent, the present invention provides significant improvements over the prior system in the areas of improved performance and improved product handling.